Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
3 ingredients for good product decisions
Citation preview
Data, Taste &ConfidenceLennart Schoors (Lensco) — IA day Gent 2012
Data, taste & confidence
3 ingredients for a good product decision
Data, taste & confidence
3 ingredients for a good product decision
a bunch of experiences and observations from five years as lead designer at Netlog, riddled with quotes from people smarter than me
Ingrediënten voor een goeie product beslissingIngrediënten voor een goeie product beslissingIngrediënten voor een goeie product beslissing
or ...
1. Data
Research
Good research consists of correctly interpreting sufficient, correct data.
Sufficient data: enough...
Last week I tossed a coin a hundred times. 49 heads. Then I changed into a red t-shirt and tossed the same coin another hundred times. 51 heads. From this, I conclude that wearing a red shirt gives a 4.1% increase in conversion in throwing heads.
Cennydd Bowles, Clearlefthttp://www.cennydd.co.uk/2009/statistical-significance-other-ab-test-pitfalls/
“
... but not too much
‣ lurking danger: A/B test everything!result: Frankenstein interfaces
‣ Google testing 41 shades of bluehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/business/01marissa.html?pagewanted=3
Correct data
‣ people don't like change
‣ negative bias in user feedback
Unhappy users write angry comments, join groups, sign petitions, vote in polls, …
Happy users just use your product.
Unhappy users write angry comments, join groups, sign petitions, vote in polls, …
Happy users just use your product.
‣measure user behavior as well as user feedback
Interpretation
When a company is filled with engineers, it turns to engineering to solve problems. Reduce each decision to a simple logic problem. Remove all subjectivity and just look at the data. […] And that data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions.
Doug Bowman, Twitterhttp://stopdesign.com/archive/2009/03/20/goodbye-google.html
“
2. Taste
Objective taste
‣ basic principles of design
‣ the mere fact that you follow a certaindesign direction
‣ also: copy, usability, flow, interactions,customer relations, ...
Good taste supports
Problems with visual design can turn users off so quickly that they never discover all the smart choices you made with navigation or interaction design.
Jesse James Garrett, Adaptive Pathhttp://uxmyths.com/post/1161244116/myth-25-aesthetics-are-not-important-if-you-have-good-us
“
Good taste creates trust
Good design at the front-end suggests that everything is in order at the back-end, whether or not that is the case.
Dmitry Fadeyevhttp://www.usabilitypost.com/2010/03/24/value-of-good-design/
“
Good taste has to be ingrained
The reason large companies with bad design are the way they are is because they are run poorly from the top, with philosophies that force the entire company to behave like its lowest common denominator. […] And if the company is being run by people who don't have taste, it gets stuck. Eventually, the company's brand suffers.
Dustin Curtishttp://dustincurtis.com/dear_dustin_curtis.html
“
“ Without a person at (or near) the helm who thoroughly understands the principles and elements of Design, a company eventually runs out of reasons for design decisions. With every new design decision, critics cry foul. Without conviction, doubt creeps in. Instincts fail.
Doug Bowman, Twitterhttp://stopdesign.com/archive/2009/03/20/goodbye-google.html
3. Confidence
Confidence
‣ in the product
‣ in your decisions
‣ give changes time to settle ...
‣ ... but don’t be too late to admit defeat
“ I don’t mean this as a negative, but I don’t think of the audience at all. I don’t go to see a movie –a filmmaker’s vision– hoping to second-guess what I want. I go to see what he wants. [...] The day we start think about what the audience wants is the day we’re going to start making bad choices.
Andrew Stanton, Pixar/Disneyhttp://www.bigscreenanimation.com/2008/06/andrew-stanton-roundtable-discussion.html
You can’t jump a twenty foot chasmin two ten foot leaps.
